MY 1st N GAUGE MODEL BOUGHT BY MY FATHER -- MINITRIX BRITANNIA

Slightly deviating from my regular blog which would normally focus on Railtours, trips and of course my late Father's O Gauge and OO Gauge modelling, I wanted to write about my earliest experience of N Gauge and a model that I still own and still runs superbly despite being at least 40 years old. I think back and believe I would have been about 7 years old at the time, living in a small flat sharing a bedroom with my older brother. We simply didn't have the room for a layout, up till then had only seen the OO Gauge items that we used over at the BBC Model Railway Club so was completely bowled over when Dad bought home a new model layout and starting building in N Gauge. 

STILL IN IT'S ORIGINAL BOX FROM THE 1970's

Never seen the likes of it till then, so small, so much to fit in a small space, so fragile (yes as a child I would break things, something I still do to this day sadly). So I was immediately hooked on N Gauge models, despite it being way out of my pocket money range I actually acquired a reasonable amount of rolling stock. This was long before eBay and the like, I was picking up stock from toy shops, second hand shops and jumble sales. Britannia remained my fav item, and was generally out of place on the layouts I built in my bedroom and then Garage, although I would of course run what I like but enjoyed creating shunting yards, carriage sidings, and making use of all the space. Oh for a return to those happier days, and I also wish I had taken pictures of it all to capture the moment. 

BRITANNIA HAVING A RUN OUT ON MY SHORT TEST TRACK

Was sad when I had to say goodbye to all that and the entire collection including boards, track and stock was broken up and sold. Fortunately I was able to keep hold of this one for old times sake. 

Have recently begun to acquire some N Gauge stock again and some Kato Track which will do for me. All I want is for a small shunting puzzle layout, with the oval being retained for test running purposes. Will look for some shunters, maybe a DMU or Railcar and see what happens.